Monday, December 8, 2008

I'm often surrounded with people who know way more vocabulary words than I do, have read more books than I will ever have the time or motivation to read and have the ability to debate any topic to death and come out the clear winner in five minutes flat...

Unfortunately I wasn't brought up in a household where education and academic knowledge were a main focus - it just wasn't something that my mother harped on while I was growing up. Not that I'm blaming her for my inadequecies... well, ok, so I guess sorta. Let me be clear on one thing though - it wasn't because she didn't care. I think she was sooo busy trying to make ends meet to support us that it was one of the things that fell outside of her immediate radar. Now don't get me wrong, she was constantly on me when it came to my grades, but to her it was enough to see the numbers/letters and wasn't exactly hands-on when it came to my studies or when it came time to choose a college.

However, what she lacked in this department she more than made up for in lessons of strength (as a single mother, my mom was always a superhero), self-respect (she left my father and started over), kindness (my mom was one of 7 girls and was and is probably still the least difficult and most mild natured of them all) and of course growing old gracefully (she's 75 years young). I guess to me, it's not how much you know or what you're capable of but more about what you do with those powers and more importantly how you treat those who may fall a tad shorter or weaker than you... another lesson learned from mom. Happy Birthday!